Big News: Asylum Seekers Seeking Asylum

How many asylum seekers were on the Tampa? It depends what
paper you read, and on what day you read it. The Sydney
Morning Herald said there were 436, two days later they said
438. Reuters have said 460. Another paper said 434. Now
just about everybody has reverted to “over 400” asylum
seekers – except the Holmes Show who, with several overseas
media, had a reporter on the boat for an hour last week. But
however many there were, everybody has an opinion as to
whether John Howard should have let them onto Aussie turf.

For the record there were 436 asylum seekers, 43 of them
children, 22 women and at least two were pregnant and three
seriously ill. They were attended to by 27 crew. After all,
the Norwegian container ship is only designed for about
30.

Aussie immigration minister Phillip Ruddock has said
that under United Nations standards only 15 percent of
asylum seekers who illegally enter Australia would qualify
as genuine asylum seekers, whereas under the current
interpretation of the Australian courts 85 percent manage to
stay. They get placed in mandatory detention centres under
temporary protection visas until they are assessed. They get
conditions worse than prisoners. Last year 4452 people were
granted TPVs.

According to the UN, one in every 280 people
is a refugee. Just ten countries have permanent refugee
programmes. Australia’s annual refugee intake is 12 000,
more per head than any other country except Canada. Ours is
750, but the most New Zealand has taken in any one time is
ten, by air. Singapore, on the other hand does not accept
refugees and Japan took just 16 last year.

We’re about to
take 150, which will cost you $1.35 million. It’s all part
of the refugee budget anyway.

“Thanks very much, we’re
most grateful,” says Howard. Grateful he should be. In an
election year, Howard does not want to be seen as being soft
on refugees. But he is not doing has election chances much
good by his “not on our turf” stance -not even as a stop off
point.

Church leaders were appalled at Howard. They often
are, despite Howard being an Anglican churchgoer. They are
still waiting a formal apology for the stolen aboriginal
generation. Churches sent a delegation to Canberra to
express their concerns. “Where’s the compassion?” they
asked. Ironically these church leaders had commemorated
Refugee Sunday at services just the day before the march.
They continue to call on the government to avoid making
changes to the United Nations 1951 Refugee convention –
signed and ratified by Australia – that gives a legal
obligation to provide asylum to refugees, irrespective of
their mode of travel. Last month Howard called for changes
to the convention to prevent people seeking asylum in
Australia, which would weaken the whole regime of
international refugee protection.

This week he announced
the introduction of llegislation to exclude Christmas Island
and Ashmore Reef from the nation's migration zone, after he
revealed that another 237 refugees had been intercepted off
north-western Australia. The legislation would be introduced
in parliament on September 17 and means asylum seekers would
have to reach the Australian mainland before they could
apply for refugee status.

But Australia is not
over-run by boat people – it’s just that Howard is hard
nosed because he is sick of illegal immigrants jumping the
queue over refugees. In the year ending 1999, Australia
received 8000 unauthorised arrivals – two thirds of their
refugee quota. But the UK got 52,000, and Canada and the US
got 427,000. Germany got 98,000 asylum seekers as well as
117,648 refugees.

So much for “Advance Australia Fair”,
the anthem with the lines “for those who come across the
seas we’ve got boundless plains to share.” Maybe they should
change the anthem to Waltzing Matilda if they are going to
tell asylum seekers to go waltzing off elsewhere - to places
like Nauru and New
Zealand.

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